Throws spray, in surfer lingo / SAT 3-7-26 / Dry streambed / Makeup of a plot / You might dance on one / Like the crescendo in Ravel's "Boléro" / Controller of floods in the video game Pharaoh / Low notes, but not the lowest /

Constructor: Fritz Juhnke

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: wadi (which was somehow not the answer to 28D: Dry streambed (WASH)) —

the bed or valley of a stream in regions of southwestern Asia and northern Africa that is usually dry except during the rainy season and that often forms an oasis : GULLY, WASH (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

The fact that WADI and WASH (28D: Dry streambed) are essentially synonyms is just about the cruelest joke the English language ever played on this Saturday solver. I mean ... dry riverbed, Saturday puzzle, starts WA- ... I dropped WADI in there without hesitation. Not only has WADI been in the grid before (91 times, 14 in the Modern Era), you wanna know how it was clued the last time it appeared (2024)? That's right: [Dry streambed]. Same damn clue as today's clue for WASH. The fact that it's been in the grid before is the only way I know the meaning of WADI at all. Learned it from crosswords! I was so proud of WADI. Well, not proud, exactly, but I did think "thank god I solve a lot, that's kind of a tough word." WADI has been [Dry streambed] three times, whereas WASH (which, unlike WADI, has infinite other clue possibilities) has only been clued as a [Dry streambed] once before today. So I don't know what you all were struggling with today, but for me, the WADI / WASH thing was the pro-trap to beat all pro-traps. That "D" made "AM I NUTS?" impossible to see, even with several crosses in place. And an already hard (and bizarre) clue on WHIM (43A: You might dance on one) became impossible with the "I" from WADI in the second position. So while other parts of the puzzle were also challenging, that tiny WASH / WHIM / TWOS section seems, in retrospect, like the most treacherous. 

KRONA / LAND / NOPE wasn't great either. Never know which vowel ("E" or "A") is going to end KRON-, and then LAND ... yeesh, that vague clue (24A: Makeup of a plot). A plot of LAND, I get it, now, but I wanted, like ACRES or DIRT or, I don't know, something, anything more specific than just LAND. Even with "L" and "N" in place, I didn't know. Started thinking of other "plot"s (like, conspiracies). I wish the difficulty on this one hadn't come so much in the fussy short bits of the grid (or, as this crossword insists on calling them, the DOTTED bits). I much prefer to struggle with longer stuff and then have a moment of revelation where a (preferably great) answer bursts forth and really opens up the grid. I got that feeling—struggle, struggle, pow!—only once, really: when I hacked my way to ELM ST. (45A: Location of a notorious 33-Down: Abbr.) and then realized that the answer I couldn't get earlier—the long answer starting with "N" (33D: Cause of a cold sweat, perhaps) was NIGHTMARE! That was fun. About as much fun as I've ever had with cross-referenced clues. No other moment of the solve was so thrilling, though I do think the corners are generally very strong. Loved "SPIT IT OUT!" over "HOLY MOSES!" It's like one half of a dramatic conversation. "SPIT IT OUT!" "[unheard but obviously shocking statement]." "HOLY MOSES!" 

OMNIVERSE is a stupid word since "universe" already means "Totality of everything," but whatever, I got it easily from the "M." CARD SHARK (1A: One who makes a living from fish), is always tricky, esp. if you know that the term is actually CARD SHARP. Actually, both terms get used now, but SHARK is the mutation, I'm pretty sure. 

Phrasefinder puts "card sharp" (or "-sharper") as the slightly earlier usage, with an 1859 citation for "card-sharper" and "card-sharp" in both Britain and in the US, while "card-shark" is cited to 1893 in the US. (wikipedia)

As for the "fish" part of the clue, those are the marks. Was the "fish" bit supposed to clue me in to the fact that the answer was going to involve marine life? Perhaps. That never occurred to me while solving (I actually didn't struggle much with this one because I had the "K" from KRON- before I ever knew that 1A had anything to do with cards). 

[Caravaggio, The Cardsharps, c. 1594]

I had to think for a bit to understand how STAR POWER fit the clue (15A: Screen grab?). I guess the people on the "screen" who "grab" an audience are said to have STAR POWER. Yeah, that must be it. Saw a couple of movies with a lot of STAR POWER over the last two days: On Thursday, there was Crime 101 (Halle Berry, Mark Ruffalo, one of the Hemsworth brothers (please do not ask me to keep them straight), Nick Nolte, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and the great Barry Keoghan (best thing about the movie by far)), and then yesterday there was The Bride! (Bening! Bale! Buckley!—the three B's!—plus Penélope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, and Jake Gyllenhaal). Neither film has been particularly well reviewed but I enjoyed both and really liked The Bride! STAR POWER is actually an important component of that movie, as Frankie, the monster (Bale), has an obsession with a 1930s movie musical star (J. Gyllenhaal), whose movies he goes to see obsessively, living vicariously through the star as a way of combating his own profound loneliness. That's STAR POWER.

POCO A POCO is pretty tough, as musical terms go (17A: Like the crescendo in Ravel's "Boléro"). I can hear Boléro in my head very clearly right now, but I had to infer POCO A POCO from crosses. The phrase is at least vaguely familiar to me. "Little by little"—which is how Boléro builds, at least in volume. The term POCO A POCO does not appear at all on the wikipedia page for Boléro. Someone more musical than I will tell you whether the term is apt. "NO, I INSIST" as an intriguing "OII" string (don't see those too often). Weird lot of first-person business today ("NO, I INSIST," and then "AM I NUTS?" crossing "I'M AN IDIOT"), but I don't have a problem with it. The pun on "smoking" in the RIB JOINTS clue, though (13D: Establishments where smoking is allowed)—that seems kind of forced. Smoking is not "allowed" in RIB JOINTS, it's one of the primary activities of RIB JOINTS. It's essential to RIB JOINTS. Permission is not a relevant issue. Boo to that attempted misdirection, for sure. 

Bullets:

• 19A: What travellers typically have in America? (ONE "L") — a "letteral" clue! Did not see that one coming. I guess if you have to use ugly crosswordese like ONEL, you may as well go ahead and try to make it interesting. As long as "interesting" doesn't mean "awkward and unnecessarily difficult," I don't mind.
• 29A: Controller of floods in the video game Pharaoh (OSIRIS) — had the "O," saw "Pharaoh" in the clue, wrote in OSIRIS. No video game knowledge required.
• 37D: R&B's Braxton (TONI) — I really enjoyed her music in the '90s and early '00s. Listened to this one a lot. Real Anita Baker vibes (extremely complimentary):

• 40A: Sémillon rouge and Médoc noir (MERLOTS) — had the "M" and those seemed ... red ... so guessed MERLOTS. No sweat.
• 62A: Woman central to electioneering? (IONE) — never saw this clue! Weird how you can struggle in some places and absolutely blow through others. Anyway, this is a hidden-name clue: "electioneering."
• 10D: Throws spray, in surfer lingo (SHREDS) — I know this as guitar-playing slang, but I was able to infer it easily enough today (thanks, RABBI and EMOJI!).
• 63A: "Big Little Lies" author Moriarty (LIANE) — a five-letter version of Veronica ROTH, in that she's a popular author whose name I cannot for the life of me remember, ever. I had to leave the final vowel blank here and wait for the cross, as LIANA is also a name one might have.
• 39D: Low notes, but not the lowest (TWOS) — definitely had TENS in here at some point. Completely forgot TWOS existed. I have a bunch of them stashed in the house somewhere, courtesy of someone who decided to make their annual $$$ contribution to this blog in ... unusual fashion. I should just deposit them, but their such weird, crisp little curiosities that I feel strangely compelled to hold on to them.

That's all for today. See you next time (and a "Happy" Daylight Saving Time to all of you) (I hate "springing forward" so much, esp. when it happens in winter and not in *&$%ing spring like it's supposed to)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Montenegrin, e.g. / FRI 3-6-26 / Grain that once fed the Roman army / Satellite transmission path / Longtime soccer manager ___-Göran Eriksson / Shelters some look to when duty calls? / Hyperbolic amount of work / Emits a stream of hot air / Exiled character in "King Lear" / The good life, in Spanish vernacular / First impression of a new video game? / Feature of Alfalfa's hair in "The Little Rascals" / Fictional subjects of 13 movies between 2000 and 2020 / Device such as a qamutiik, an Inuk means of Arctic transportation

Constructor: Adrian Johnson

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Montenegro (34A: Montenegrin, e.g. = BALKAN) —

Montenegro is a country in Southeast Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Its 25 municipalities have a total population of 633,158 people in an area of 13,883 km² (5,360 sq mi). It is bordered by Serbia to the northeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Kosovo to the east, Albania to the southeast, and Croatia to the west, and has a coastline along the Adriatic Sea to the southwest. The capital and largest city is Podgorica, while Cetinje is the Old Royal Capital and cultural centre. [...] he name Montenegro was first used to refer to the country in the late 15th century. After falling under Ottoman Empire rule, Montenegro gained semi-autonomy in 1696 under the rule of the House of Petrović-Njegoš, first as a theocracy and later as a secular principality. Montenegro's independence was recognised by the Great Powers at the Congress of Berlin in 1878. In 1910, the country became a kingdom. After World War I, the kingdom became part of Yugoslavia. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, the republics of Serbia and Montenegro together proclaimed a federation. In June 2006 Montenegro declared its independence following a referendum. (wikipedia)

• • •

[the only Montenegro I have any personal experience with]

Solid stacks, minimal gunk, pretty good. The most annoying thing about the puzzle to me, personally, is its physical shape, its particular black-square arrangement, which cuts this puzzle almost in two and really chokes off the whoosh. Here, I'll show you. This is me, almost exactly halfway through:

As you can see (I hope), there are multiple entryways into the empty half of the grid, obviously (four of them), but they are all teeny tiny, particularly at the top and bottom, and even if you manage to poke an answer through one of them (as I did with OPENS), you don't really get any good traction because you end up in the middle of a bed of long answers. The way I keep up flow and maintain traction is by access to somewhat shorter fill (easier to get at first glance than longer fill, on average), so having passages narrow and having very little to grab hold of via crosses meant an annoying kind of halt and reboot. Like there were two puzzles. I basically had to start over. Heavy segmentation is not my favorite thing on any puzzle, but esp. not on a Friday puzzle, when I crave whoosh (not necessarily speed, but that feeling of one thing flowing into the next into the next etc.). Getting into that second half of the grid was not, ultimately, that difficult. But still, did not like having my flow interrupted so drastically. I did, however, like the NW and SE corners—no clunkers in those longer answers—and the puzzle ended up putting up a halfway decent fight, which I appreciated.

The hardest part of the puzzle for me was ... well, you can see, if you look at my screenshot of the finished grid (above) that the last thing I wrote into the puzzle was BALKAN (34A: Montenegrin, e.g.). Everything in and around BALKAN I have circled in green ink on my printout and shaded in, so there's this giant greenish blob from the -DED in WOODED up through ROTH, whose name (LOL) I once again forgot. I know a Tim ROTH and I know ROTH IRAs and if I'm lisping I know Betsy ROTH but that's it. I think my brain is incapable of retaining any more ROTHs. [update: as several readers have reminded me, I do know other ROTHs: David Lee and Philip, to name two]. I have never and will never read those "Divergent" novels and I have never and apparently will never remember Veronica ROTH's name. It's a curse. I'll just have to live with it. As far as everything else inside the green blog—I came at it from below so first had trouble with TAX DODGES. I had the -ODGES part and wanted to be dealing with some kind of LODGES (31D: Shelters some look to when duty calls?). "Shelters" are structures and LODGES are structures and DODGES really aren't, so I was baffled. I wanted WOODSY for 39A: Sylvan, which forced DODGES but then also was wrong (it's WOODED), so my confidence in anything through there grew faint. That clue on X-MEN did nothing for me (37A: Fictional subjects of 13 movies between 2000 and 2020). 13 movies!?!? Yeesh. Why? I was fully prepared to write in ENTS at one point (how many LOTR/Hobbit movies have there been?). I was thinking of TV / the movies / drama as the context for 28D: Made a scene, say (FILMED). I just wasn't thinking of FILMED (for a while). And FARRO, forget it, no way I'm getting that grain without help from crosses (28A: Grain that once fed the Roman army). I was never fully stuck in this area—it just got real gummy. Nowhere else did toughish clues come in a clump like this.

Lots of little errors today. WOODSY was one. The most consequential error was probably up to where I wrote in "Just a FAD" (5D: Just a ___ = TAD). Actually, I think I wanted DAB before that, but LET'S DO LUNCH eliminated that, and I was left with -AD. Just a FAD. Makes sense to me. But then I had STAR F- at 1A: First impression of a new video game? and the only 11-letter word or phrase I know that starts STAR F- is not something you'll ever see in the NYTXW, so ... that was a no-go. Eventually noticed that TAD would give me START at the beginning of 1A, and that's how I got START BUTTON (a good answer and a great clue, it turns out). I really like the strange finger-based "?"-clue symmetry of 1A: First impression of a new video game? (START BUTTON) and 57A: Digital deals for young people (PINKY SWEARS). Unless you're hitting the START BUTTON with your elbow or forehead or something. Then I supposed that particular symmetry would be lost on you. Any other outright errors? Nope. I had no idea who the SVEN guy was (48D: Longtime soccer manager ___-Göran Eriksson), but otherwise, outside of the green blob, this was a fairly easy puzzle.

Bullets:

• 54A: Home security inits. since 1874 (ADT) — The "since 1874" bit sounds suspiciously ad-like. Next it'll be [Home security inits. you can trust]. ADT is about the worst thing this grid has to offer in terms of fill quality. Unless you're a French-hater, in which case you're probably more mad at ICI (52D: Pas ___ (somewhere else: Fr.)). "Pas ICI" means literally "not here."
• 6D: Emits a stream of hot air (BLOVIATES) — I love this answer. "It figures!" Alright, alright, settle down.
• 7D: Satellite transmission path (UPLINK) — "path" had me thinking of orbits. Had the "P" and briefly considered APOGEE ... but that's a point in an orbit. 

APOGEE: the point in the orbit of an object (such as a satellite) orbiting the earth that is at the greatest distance from the center of the earth (merriam-webster.com)

• 8D: Hit the ground loudly (THUDDED) — disguised past tense ("Hit"). Tricky.
• 9D: Hyperbolic amount of work (TONS) — I wanted this to be more work-specific. TONS is a hyperbolic amount of anything. A hyperbolic amount of spaghetti, for instance.
• 14D: Pleasurable place to do business? (SEX SHOP) — I follow a sex shop on Instagram. Bet you didn't expect to see that sentence today. Smitten Kitten is very close to where my best friends live in Minneapolis and they have been an important voice in the resistance to I.C.E., as well as an important source of support for their neighbors who are being hunted and living in fear. Their social media posts are funny and fearless. I don't think I've ever actually been in Smitten Kitten, but next time I'm in town, I'm going, if only to say "love your work." I'm pretty sure following Smitten Kitten on Insta helped me see SEX SHOP today quicker than I would have otherwise.

• 43D: ___ Buena (island in San Francisco Bay) (YERBA) — didn't know this and yet somehow also it's the first thing I thought of. If you'd asked me what I thought "YERBA Buena" was before today, I'd've said something like "uh... a town near San Diego?" The only island I know in the Bay is Alcatraz.
• 44D: Exiled character in "King Lear" (EDGAR) — deep cut. Pretty tough, as Shak. clues go. Without crosses, I'm not sure I'd've remembered it off the top of my head.
• 32D: The good life, in Spanish vernacular (PURA VIDA) —this phrase is specifically Costa Rican. I saw it all the time when I was down there on vacation (a long time ago, now).

That's all for today. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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